Good Morning, World

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Yeah. That.

Good Morning, World

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I have no idea what this gif is from (he looks awful young) but Martin Freeman has a horror movie out in theaters today so let's go with some Martin Freeman this morning then. The horror movie is called Ghost Stories and it's only opening in theaters here in New York (it opens in LA next week) but it's also hitting VOD so that applies to everybody, hurray, the democracy of technology. I've heard good stuff about it - it's an anthology story wherein Martin's character connects the three tales o' spooks - but haven't been able to see it yet. Here's the trailer:

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Martin actually has another horror movie playing at Tribeca, 

a zombie thing called Cargo - and that I have already seen 

and you should stay tuned for my thoughts on that...

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Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

The World's End (2013)

Steven: We need to be able to differentiate 

between them, them and us. 

Peter: Yeah, I think the pronouns are really confusing. 

Gary: I don't even know what a pronoun is. 

Oliver: Well, it's a word that can function by itself as 

a noun which refers to something else in the discourse. 

Gary: I don't get it. 

Andrew: You just used one. 

Gary: Did I? 

Andrew: "It" it's a pronoun. 

Gary: What is? 

Andrew: It! 

Gary: Is it? 

Andrew: Christ! 

Happy birthday, Edgar Wright!

71 days until Baby Driver Opens!

Good Morning, World

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Okay so these shots of Maetin Freeman in Peter Greenaway's Nightwatching do not seem to be displaying a "Good" anything, much less a "Good Morning," but they're what we've got gratuitously-speaking (I didn't feel like looking at Love Actually, sorry) so they're what we've got. It's Martin's 45th birthday today! We love Martin, thanks to The Office originally but then there's his Bilbo of course but more effectively there's Sherlock and even more so there's Fargo. He's a delight. Happy 45, you delight. Or... not...

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I Am Link

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--- United Colors - I feel as if I have to post this even though it's not entirely in my wheelhouse, but then it does involve David Oyelowo so it's not a massive sacrifice - you know how just the other day I was wondering where the hell Rosamund Pike had gone (girl) to? Well here's an answer! EW has the first image of her and Oyelowo in A United Kingdom, about the true-life story of the 1940s romance between a regular ol' white English gal (I mean she looks like Rosamund Pike though, let's not be crazy or anything) and the Prince of Botswana, which was a big scandal and forced the Prince into exile.

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--- Forget The War - Why would you take a book titled The Spy Who Tried To Stop A War: Katherine Gun And The Secret Plot To Sanction The Iraq Invasion and re-title it as a movie called Official Secrets? SNOOZE. The Spy Who Tried To Stop A War is a terrific title! Anyway the thing is being directed by Justin Chadwick, who directed The Other Boleyn Girl and Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, so he knows from SNOOZE. But he has gathered up quite a cast - Natalie Dormer, Paul Bettany, Harrison Ford, Martin Freeman and Anthony Hopkins will star as various real folks in over their heads.
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--- La Barbie - I had my own "white privilege" slap me upside the head the other day when it didn't even occur to me when I posted about Joseph Fiennes playing Michael Jackson to consider the racial implications - I was just thinking about the physical  match, which is there. But I get why people were upset! Anyway I had no such problems recognizing the race problem right off the bat with the news that noted-Latino Charlie Hunnam just got cast as a Mexican drug-lord. According to that source the dude he is playing "was also light-skinned and blue-eyed, apparently, and he had the football and cartel-nickname of La Barbie" but still. This is a bit much.
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--- Mama In Law - In my mind I seem to have convinced myself that I like Mama, the 2013 horror flick produced by Guillermo Del Toro, but I think what it is is I just liked it slightly more than my boyfriend, who hated it. I remember thinking it was okay. Anyway there is going to be a sequel because the original film did great business and they just made a really terrific choice on who's directing - Dennis Widmyer and Kevin Kolsch, the directors who made last year's terrific Hollywood nightmare called Starry Eyes, will take the helm.
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--- That Face - This article amused me -- a site called The Inverse took a look at "The Psychology of Why Mads Mikkelsen Looks So Fucking Evil" by diving into the shapes and contours and individual forms of his glorious and particular visage. The specter of Creepypasta's "The Expressionless" is summoned, and at that point I was rolling on the floor. It's all good though!
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--- Anon Anon - I should probably stop waiting for Andrew Niccol to make a movie as good as his first movie Gattaca (or his second script for The Truman Show) because it probably ain't gonna happen at this point. I did like last year's drone-thriller Good Kill well enough to keep paying attention though, and news on his next thing is positive -- it's called Anon and it's a sci-fi story about a future with no crime and a mystery woman, and it will star Clive Owen. Probably not as the mystery woman, but who knows. Anything's possible.
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--- Make A Scene - Phew, I've got my lunch-time reading all sorted out -- the New York Times spoke to Todd Haynes at length about his visual references for Carol, which he apparently sorts out into photo collages to create a texture and a feel for what he's gunning for. Clearly some enterprising publisher needs to get this shit together and make copies for all of us to have! (thanks Mac)
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--- Mighty Weiner - Nate Parker's ultra-buzzy The Birth of a Nation sold for an enormous sum of money out of Sundance, which is awesome, I can't wait to see it, but it swallowed up the other happy-making Sundance buy which is that Amazon bought Todd Solondz's film Wiener-Dog with Greta Gerwig for "seven figures" and the contract apparently stipulates "a significant theatrical release" which is all great news for Solondz. When I first read Amazon bought it I figured it'd show up on my Prime account next week with no fan-fare or something. I mean I wouldn't mind seeing it that fast but Todd should bank some buck once in awhile.
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I Am Link

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--- Hot Broads - You might not know this about me since I've literally never mentioned it here at the blog but I'm a gigantic Broad City fan - just love 'em! Love them girls to death, I do. So the news that they're teaming up with Bridesmaids (and the Lady Ghostbusters movie) director Paul Feig to make a movie (for now he's only set to produce it) is being met with some big wahoos round here. What's funny is just last night I randomly asked my boyfriend if he thought Ilana & Abbi would ever do a project without the other one, which led to a whole terrifying conversation about one of them playing the tilted-head listening girlfriend of Jessica Alba in a rom-com. Horror! In related news, here's an interview with the gals in Paper that I haven't gotten around to reading yet.

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--- Super Forever - Going back and watching the earlier Marvel movies (for the first time or the tenth) was of course a big to-do with this week's release of the second Avengers film - over at The Film Experience Nathaniel did that 11 film marathon some theaters were holding which is just psychosis if you ask me - nut balls! - but it makes for good reading. And my pal Sean went back and saw the several Marvel hero movies he'd missed and wrote up some quick smart thoughts at his site on each. In related news, the next Avengers, subtitled Infinity War (it will be in two parts, too), is filming entirely in IMAX. I am super into that.
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--- White Panther - Martin Freeman has elbowed his way to the front of the King of the Geeks pack by landing a role in the Marvel universe - he's going to play "some sort of interrogator" in the next Captain America movie, which Latino Review is speculating means he's playing this expert on the country of Wakanda, which means he'll probably also show up in a Black Panther movie. If none of that makes any sense to you, I wish I was you, seriously, I am jealous of your brain's freedom from this nonsense. You probably remember actual things from your actual life!

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--- And Still Speaking of Marvel, Joss Whedon quit Twitter and it caused way way too many think-pieces - the most interesting tidbits were from the parties directly involved - here's Joss explaining to BuzzFeed why he quit after people speculated it was The Feminist's Fault (somehow it's always Their Fault, funny how that works) and here's Mark Ruffalo defending Joss' feminism bonafides, which I agree with - it's horseshit that this needs to be said. Take a torn up page from Sinead and start fighting the real enemies, people. So much energy wasted on so much bullshit.

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--- Off The Clift - I keep forgetting that Ira Sachs is making a Montgomery Clift biopic starring Matthew Bomer, and how I keep forgetting that it beyond the beyond me, it should always be right there at the front of my brain. Anyway it seems like it's slow going with the project so it's not my fault - there's just not much to report yet. But Ira Sachs posted a picture of Matty doing research in a library! Matt wearing glasses surrounded by books... uhh excuse me, I need a minu... uhhh... nevermind that was quick. (thanks Mac)

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--- The Bae In Beirut - Frat-boy abuser Jon Hamm has signed on to star in a movie called High Wire Act, which was written by Tony Gilroy (writer of a bunch of the Bourne movies and director of the great Michael Clayton) and to be directed by Brad Anderson (director of the great Session 9 and The Machinist). It's a thriller set in Beirut in the 1980s about a diplomat trying to rescue the dude who was responsible for the death of his family. Sounds morally complicated and super fun!
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--- Total Resistance - Wow this is quite the cast: a WWII assassination drama called HHHH just lined up Jason Clarke, Rosamund Pike, Mia Wasikowska, Jack O'Connell, and Jack Reynor to star. O'Connell and Reynor (and I can't believe they're making a movie together; I still kind of get them confused) are playing soldiers sent to kill the Nazi (played by Clarke) who came up with the "Final Solution." In others words, that's a character it will be easy to not like! Half of Clarke's work is done for him already. Pike is Clarke's wife, who introduced him to the Nazi ideology, and Wasikowska's a member of the Polish resistance. What about that title though? HHHH? I don't know about that.

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--- Holy Rollers - A couple of actors have joined the cast of Preacher, AMC's "holy man against desert devils" comic adaptation starring Dominic Cooper - Jamie Anne Allman from The Killing and Derek Wilson from Rectify will play husband and wife Civil War reenactors whose relationship of spousal abuse sucks Dominic in. Did I just say "suck Dominic in"? I did. Wait what? I don't know.
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I Am Link

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--- Pretty On The Inside - So according to Nicolas Winding Refn's wife, the filmmaker Liv Corfixen, the two most prominent influences on Refn's upcoming horror movie The Neon Demon, which will star Elle Fanning plus several other lovely ladies plus Keanu Reeves, are the cannibalism-survival movie Alive and the beauty pageant comedy Drop Dead Gorgeous. This, yes this, is your mind on drugs. A little more precise info at that link says it's about supermodels and voodoo. I repeat: this is your brain on drugs.

--- Throne Shuffle - In case you're curious what George RR Martin thinks about HBO's recently discussed thoughts on making A Game of Thrones be a full ten seasons long, and then all that possible movie stuff, you can get the highlights over here. Also, I haven't watched them myself but several prmotional featurettes on the upcoming season have been released, you can see them at DH. Somebody let me know if one of them is just Nikolaj Coster-Waldau walking around in briefs for three minutes, then I'll bother.

--- Big Vigor - I didn't get a chance to see Cinderella in theaters this weekend but it was a big hit and everything I've heard has been positive so maybe sometime (ahh who I am kidding, I have too much else to see, this will wait for video)... anyway what matters most is clearly more talk about Richard Madden's princely bulge pants, so here's an interview at HitFix with costumer Sandy Powell where the subject is broached. "Richard had the vigor to get away with it," she says. "Vigor" is my new favorite euphemism.

--- And Speaking of Disney movies just bulging with talent, the live-action Beauty and the Beast movie that Bill Condon is directing just gained Emma Thomspon as Mrs. Potts and Kevin Kline as Belle's father, "Crazy Old Maurice, Ehhhhh???" Sorry I was just possessed by my ability to quote any and all parts from the animated version, don't mind me.

--- Joe Dethroned - This morning I posted the news that Matt Bomer and Cheyenne Jackson had joined the new season of American Horror Story; this actually came on the heels of the news that Bomer's stripper-costar Joe Manganiello had dropped out of Ryan Murphy's other big gay horror show, Scream Queens. Joe's been replaced by Oliver Hudson. I wonder if this has to do with Joe probably getting a role in the Suicide Squad movie?

--- Future Past - Just because the BBC will literally let Steven Moffat and Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman do anything the hell they want to as long as they keep coming back and making Sherlock for them, the next special - which will air this winter - is set in Victorian England, but it doesn't have anything to do with time-travel. It's just its own thing, or whatever. No big whoop. Back up the Brinks truck!

--- Jason Knocks - So apparently the idea behind the Friday the 13th TV show that's been bandied about for a bit - and no, it won't have anything to do with demon-possessed antiques unfortunately - is to borrow/steal a bunch from that repository of great ideas Blair Witch 2: it'll be set in the "real world" town that the Jason Voorhees movies were based on, where "real" murders once happened and were exploited by the franchise, and show the townsfolk dealing with their infamy as a killer stalks amongst them. The killer will be a more "serious backwoods inspired killer." Hey maybe that means we'll get a bag-head? 

--- Black Bird - The couple-of-weeks-old rumor that Jack Huston will be starring in the new Crow movie - after everyone from Bradley Cooper to Luke Evans had stopped dropped and rolled outta there - has been confirmed by the creator of the comics himself; he says that it'll film in the next couple of months.Poof, interest gone.

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Martin Freeman Two Times

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(via)

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I Am Link

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--- Gone Dude - Donnie Darko director Richard Kelly wrote up pretty much the epic tongue-bath you'd expect Richard Kelly to give a David Fincher movie at his Tumblr this week on the subject of Gone Girl. Not to stereotype (a phrase that is always followed by stereotypes) but as a straight white male of middle-class privilege and geeky inclinations, I am not surprised he adored it. How about you just make a movie of your own again, Richard?

--- And Speaking of Gone Girl, author Gillian Flynn is making that US remake of Utopia with Fincher next; we just learned last week that Fincher was directing the entire thing, and we now know that she's writing the entire thing, start to finish. At that link she speaks of speaking to the creator of the fabulous original about it.
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--- Set Love - If there were more to this video that's been making the rounds of Patrick Wilson and Brooklyn Decker proving how awkward it is to film sex scenes on a movie-set for that movie Stretch - you know what I mean... ass is more; Chris Pine in a jockstrap is more - then I'd have posted it days ago, but as is it's just some sweaty shoulder and I have other things to do, yo.

---  Nazi Hour - Martin Freeman is going to star (along with Anthony LaPaglia) in a BBC movie called The Eichmann Show, which is about the two producers who "were responsible for putting together one of the first global television events, televising [the trail of Nazi Adolf Eichmann] to thirty-seven countries over four months in 1961." Now that sounds like an interesting subject I've never heard anything about. Kind of Quiz Show meets Judgment at Nuremberg. I will watch that, but I kind of hope they rename the film to You Can't Jew That on Television.

--- Devil Dan - I was really close to watching Alexandre Aja's Horns with Danny Radcliffe last night but Halloween III: Season of the Witch mood struck me and there's no telling that movie no when it wants in; anyway I'll maybe watch it tonight. Horns, that is. You can watch a brand new clip of it here, which involves Daniel Radcliffe naked as a jay-bird.

--- Vice Squad - Embarrassing admission: I had to run out of the middle of the Inherent Vice press conference at the New York Film Festival because, well, because I'd just sat through a three-hour movie having drank two large coffees beforehand and, well, I had to pee like nobody's business. Sorry, PTA & Co! I tried to hold it as long as I could but y'all were just rambling. Thankfully IndieWire made a nice list of 11 things they learned about PTA from that and the event he did the following day. (thanks Mac)
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I Am Link

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--- Undead Austen - Oh crap, this again - Deadline says that somebody's totally for real gonna make the movie version of the book Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, you guys. Totally. We haven't heard this a gazillion times before - they mean it now! It does seem legit though - it's supposed to shoot in September, with Lily James and Sam Riley as our pretty British leads and the director of Igby Goes Down behind the camera.

--- Brent Shines - I should probably go back and watch the original UK version of The Office (which in related news is super cheap on Amazon right now - 18 bucks for the entire series!) - I was one of those a-holes who never got into the American version because I held the original in such high estimation, but it's been years since I watched any of it; I wonder if Gervais-fatigue might color my impression now? Anyway Ricky has finally decided to revisit the character for real - he's making a movie about where David Brent is now. No word if Martin Freeman or Lucy Davis are showing, but I hope so, they were why I loved it.

--- See No Devil - I posted the first crotch-heavy shot of Charlie Cox on the set of Daredevil yesterday but JJ has a few more shots and these ones are clearer- you can see the walking stick and some bruises, along with Charlie Cox being totally adorable.

--- True Stuff - This is a definite case of "you take the good, you take the bad" - on the one hand, there's two doses of good in that Elizabeth Moss is rumored to be up for the female lead in the new season of True Detective while The Assassination of Jesse James director Andrew Dominik has apparently been "approached" to direct it. That's good stuff! But on the bad side there's a rumor that Vince Vaughn might be taking the other leading role (besides the already a foregone conclusion at this point Colin Farrell) and that, that, is not a good thing. I suppose it would go with the first season's template of having somebody I love and somebody I cannot stand, though. Clearly everybody will rave about how awesome Vince is and I'll lose my mind yet again.

--- Star Lord's Prayer - In lieu of having written up my thoughts on Guardians of the Galaxy review-wise yet here are some links - loved this piece on how the women in the Marvel universe handle sexism; haven't gotten all the way through this piece on where the female screenwriter of Guardians' draft ends and where James Gunn's authorship begins but it's an interesting topic; here's my pal Sean talking to Gunn about Rocket the Raccoon; and finally, here's Chris Pratt saying he'd love to have a threesome with Robert Downey Jr and Chris Evans. That last bit's the best bit, clearly.

--- Byrne-ing Down the House - I wasn't going to write anything about the screening of the Talking Heads documentary Stop Making Sense with David Byrne there for a Q&A that I attended last week because it's impossible to turn a puddle of drool into words no matter how hard you try (here's a picture I took though); anyway here's a piece at Gothamist on the experience that gets it across with words and everything huzzah.

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I Am Link

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--- Psych Out - While spoilery this chat with Caroline Dhavernas on her character's fate on Hannibal isn't the right kind of spoilery - I wanna know what's her fate fate, dammit! She can't be... you know! Christ this is impossible to talk about without spoilers, I give up. She also talks about having to lay in the rain for hours, which sounds awful. Shame on you all for tormenting my beloved Caroline! (thanks Mac)

--- Robot Go Boom - I don't know why anybody's bothering to ask the folks that made the Transformers movies their opinions on anything, much less film criticism - they should be asked maybe how to write a sentence from start to finish first, see if we can get them over that hurdle, then we'll move on to global politics or something.

--- Young Hunks - Liam Hemsworth is facing off against his Hunger Games co-star Woody Harrelson in an upcoming Western called By Way of Helena. (Anybody else think the name "Helena" should be retired from movie titles thanks to Boxing Helena? just me? Okay then.) Liam's playing a Texas Ranger who heads to a small-town enjoying a murder-spree, while Woody's the local religious whack-job.

--- The Dreyfus Affair - Roman Polanski is maybe going to make his next movie - a bio-pic of Alfred Dreyfus, a French officer falsely accused of espionage in the 19th Century - in Poland, as long as he can get them to guarantee, like sign pieces of paper three times and underline it, that the country won't ship him off to America to face his past. This would be his biggest movie in awhile, costing forty million bucks or thereabouts, and they say it will involve big-name actors. Be interesting to see who'll sign up at this point.

--- Bug Crush - That creepy guy in Prisoners that managed to out-creep Paul Dano (no small feat) has just joined Ant-Man - the actor's name is David Dastmalchian and Marvel's not telling anybody what role he's playing. I think it might perhaps be... creepy? Just a hunch.

--- Bigger And Better - I've only read pieces of it so far but this list of the top fifty blockbusters of all-time at The Dissolve is, as usual with those guys at that site, a really wonderful thing to spend a lot of your time reading. They do great work at that site, I really should link to them more often. (As if they need my help.)

--- Trek Or Treat - I actually think that casting Kellan Lutz as a young William Shatner is kinda fantastic - they've totally got similar stuff going on. I can see it. The movie is from the guy who made the Ethan Hawke version of Hamlet, and stars Peter Sarsgaard and Winona Ryder as those scientists who did the famous electric shock experiments in the 60s. William Shatner played the male scientist in a TV movie in the 70s, which is where he comes in. Meta.

--- Investigator Gadget - Sherlock is back! That is, it's coming back, eventually - they are going to shoot a one-off special in January, and then they'll shoot another three-episode season later next year. It's always a big deal that they can get busy busy bees Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman's schedules to line up at all.

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Jessica Hyde Is Back & Blonder Than Ever

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Did you guys listen to me and find some way to watch Utopia yet? The UK show might never get a proper release here in the US because David Fincher snapped up the rights to remake it here (along with Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn) but dammit all to heck the original is so good you've got to get your hands on it, I say. There are ways, you know. Anyway the second season (or "series" if we're using the Brit vernacular) starts in July and the first trailer's popped up (thanks to Bill for the heads-up) and oh my Christ I am wetting myself with want right now.

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I'm so glad this will be back in July - having just finished Orange is the New Black and Fargo and In the Flesh I'm gonna need some quality in-of-doors entertainment this Summer and this should fit the bill fully. Yeah yeah I know True Blood starts this weekend - I still haven't finished last season of that though. In summation - color!

I Am Link

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--- Every Day Friday - So there's going to be a Friday the 13th television series, apparently. Yes we know there already was one, but this one's going to actually be about Jason Voorhees, or at least his family, along with the quirky residents of the Crystal Lake community. Yes, it sounds like they're ripping off the Bates Motel model... which save Vera Farmiga has proven to be a TERRIBLE mode. Have I told you guys how boring I am finding Bates Motel right now? WTF is this crowd of skeevy bleached douchebag drug-runners nonsense? Give me taxidermy and incest and wigs dammit!

--- How About Holmes - Martin Freeman says that everybody's super-busy schedules are messing up a new round of Sherlocks happening before this year is through, but maybe they could do a one-off sorta special, they are thinking. Did everybody watch the recent episodes? I finally got through them a couple weeks ago (while I was flying to Italy actually) and man they were fun.

--- Western Fella - Most of this interview with Christopher Meloni's filler to those of us who don't watch his new show, but the bit towards the end about Oz and the effect his character had on gay representation in the media is interesting. Also I didn't know he moved to LA. Boo, Chris. (thanks Mac)

--- Showgirls & Spooks - Not a whole bunch of info but the new movie that Eli Roth is producing alongside his Aftershock director is called Drowned, will be filmed in Las Vegas any day now, and is some kind of supernatural thriller. Someone named Jessica Chandler is directing it; this is her first feature credit. Oh and Eli Roth got pissy on Twitter when BD suggested it has a "micro-budget." Probably sounded too close to "micro-penis" for him.

--- Metal Man - They've already crammed too many characters into the film's title, much less the expansive cast, but hey look Batman Vs. Superman is going to have Cyborg in it now too. He'll be played by theater actor Ray Fisher, seen there to the right; I suppose the fact that they're stuffing in a black actor who could possibly have more to do down the line should at least alleviate some of the "Toys! Toys! Toys!" obnoxiousness of how everything having to do with this movie is sitting with me.

--- Marvel At This - DH rounded up a few choice quotes from Joss Whedon in Empire magazine about how filming is going on the new Avengers movie, and about whether there are too many characters tumbling about, and yadda yadda Joss being sassy. And then over here they got a couple quotes from Marvel honcho Kevin Feige about Edgar Wright's Ant-Man movie, and how the long-game they played in getting that movie made influenced all the other movies.

--- Two Faced - We've talked about The Two Faces of January a few times since it's an adaptation of a Patricia Highsmith story starring Viggo Mortensen and Kirsten Dunst (and Oscar Isaac, blah) and obviously those things are in our wheel-house - now there's a clip and some pictures, and Viggo looks very attractive. As if that's an extraordinary thing, or something. Viggo? Attractive? What the!

--- Stargate Silliness - Ridley Scott is making a series for HBO that will explore the connections between Ancient Egypt and extraterrestrials. I feel as if I phrased that like it's a documentary or something, which obviously it isn't, obviously. Don't you even try! Bzzt! Zip it! Anyway I guess this could be something.

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Who Wore It Best?

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poll by twiigs.com

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I've never really been the world's biggest Billy Bob fan but I actually thought he was the best thing going on in the first episode of the Fargo show... that said tell me you're not seeing what I'm seeing there. Come on!

Anyway did anybody else watch it? For the first twenty minutes or so I thought I wasn't going to like it - I've seen the movie so so many times and they were jumping through so many familiar hoops that it just felt redundant and watered down - but then it started picking up and by the end I was totally into it.

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I Am Link

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--- Full Attention - I saw the ads for this new show Enlisted (starring Veronica Mars' adorable Chris Lowell) on the subway platform the other day and almost tweeted a picture with some sly entirely predictable comment about guys in uniform yadda blowjobs yadda, but I'm glad I waited because now comes word that Brandon Routh is going to show up on the show as a recurring character, so we can really push the blowjob thing with extra zeal now.

--- Falling Stars - David Cronenberg's new movie Map to the Stars, with the incredible cast of Robert Pattinson and Juliette Binoche and Julianne Moore and Mia Wasikowska and Olivia Williams, amongst others, got handed an R rating (of course it did) for sex and drugs and nudity and all the good stuff we go to the movies for - the important part here is that the film's done and will be probably be playing fests soon.

--- Beach Butler Bingo - Gerard Butler is circling the Patrick Swayze role in the upcoming remake of Point Break. I know PB is a cult movie for people my age but I was never all that into it, give or take Keanu in a wet-suit - I haven't watched it in many many years though, I really should give it a look again. The most important question is: will they hire Lori Petty to play the same role? I sure hope so.

--- Moving Pictures - This letter that Martin Scorsese wrote "to his daughter" on the state of cinema right now is filled with smart things and everything, but I find the conceit, that he was writing this to his daughter, a little off-putting. If that's true, why has it been released as some sort of press release to the world, handily coinciding with his Oscar campaign? God Wolf of Wall Street has really bittered me towards Marty hasn't it? I hope we can make up.

--- Vamp Cell - The Playlist has the first couple of official pictures from Guillermo Del Toro's upcoming horror show The Strain, based on his series of books, and it looks plenty Contagion-y. Only with Corey Stoll wearing what I assume is a gigantic wig.

--- And Speaking of first pictures from new shows, here are the first couple pictures from the Fargo television series that the Coen Brothers are producing, which stars Martin Freeman. They also have a few details - has Martin Freeman even done an American accent before? And a specific regional one like this'll call for, at that? That makes me nervous. 

--- Choke Hold -  I'll believe it when it's released in theaters and not a moment before that (it's too disheartening to get worked up over Mark Romanek making movies regularly) but Mr. Romanek is apparently really close to directing a movie about the Boston Strangler, which will star Casey Affleck. This would be great though! 

--- Streep Speaks - I've seen some people blast this speech Meryl Streep made while introducing Emma Thompson the other night for being kind of "me me me" and inappropriate and ill-informed or whatever, but I thought it was darling, so fuck you people. Speaking Meryl, I love this post of her taking selfies that Glenn gathered up at The Film Experience. You guys know we won't have Meryl forever right? You will miss her when she's gone.

--- Dress Barn - I'm getting excited about the Golden Globes, you guys! All it took was this interview with Tina Fey and an especially smart-assy Amy Poehler to get me juiced. Also helping was Jose running through the last year's best red carpet looks over at The Film Experience - I hadn't seen that dress that Adéle Exarchopoulos (will somebody please school me on how you pronounce her last name? Is it just Ex-Arch-op-oh-liss?) wore at Cannes, and it's to die for.

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Today's Fanboy Delusion

Today I'd rather be...

... turning my head to cough for Martin Freeman.

I know that the third series premiere of Sherlock doesn't air here in the US until later this month, but it aired in the UK earlier this week and we're an international community, this internet thing, so you're just gonna have to forgive me for capping two brief moments from the latest episode. I'm not spoiling anything, not really. If anything these shots taken out of context should make you want to watch the episode even more! I mean come on...

I Am Link

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--- Reading Rainbow - A new sexy poster for Lars Von Trier's Nymphomanic is online, and god help me I actually think it is indeed kind of sexy. I do love a naked man wearing glasses, even if it's Shia. And books! Books are sexy, there's just no ifs ands or big butts about it. 

--- Picture This - In his wonderful yearly tradition R. Kurt Osenlund named his favorite 20 shots from 20 different movies this year over at Slate. I always love this piece. Some real unexpected picks this time around, from several movies I still haven't seen. I've got a long way to go before I'll feel anywhere near complete on 2013, y'all.

--- Hot Lizard - Mark your calendars, the trailer for Godzilla reboot, starring Aaron Johnson and Bryan Cranston and oh yeah a giant lizard that shoots lasers out of its mouth, that trailer will be online tomorrow morningish. I just watched Kick Ass 2 last night and I am ready to stare at Aaron more, please.

--- Crossing Guard - Jake Gyllenhaal's bestie Prisoners director Denis Villeneuve is looking at making something called Sicario next, which is about a female cop who heads cross the Mexican border looking for a drug lord, and all hell breaks loose, as is wont to happen when you're in a movie and you cross the border into Mexico. Most interesting part of the story - Thad Luckinbill, one-time actor who got naked on Nip/Tuck (seen to the right there), is a producer now?

 --- Ghost Pop - In the continuing FYC series over at The Film Experience, where we're championing the efforts of 2013 movie-makers in different categories that will probably go unloved come Oscar nomination morning, Tim Brayton hit up the sound design in James Wan's The Conjuring for honors yesterday. Funny enough I rewatched that exact film the day before (the boyfriend hadn't seen it yet) and I still think it's a mess (here's my way back review) but I don't disagree on the sound design, which is mostly pretty great. There's this low hum to the film that I only noticed when Wan & Co would drop the sound out altogether, as if insects had stopped buzzing because a predator was approaching - it hits that deeply buried place inside your gut. That said I still hate the ghost whispering, though. 

--- Clark Junior - Looking much more fresh faced if slightly less fur-tastic, DH has got a picture of Henry Cavill trying out for Superman back in 2004, when he ultimately lost the role to Brandon Routh. This would've been for Brett Ratner or JJ Abrams; Bryan Singer was the one who brought on Routh.

--- Southern Discomfort - Finally some release info for Ti West's next movie - The Sacrament (which follows a dude and his friends trying to get his sister out of a South American cult, with presumably bad results) is getting released onto VOD on May 5th, and then theaters in June.

--- And finally, hey hey hey it's the first real trailer for the third season of Sherlock you guys! Yeah this has been online all weekend so those of you who wanted to see it have already seen it, whatever, I'm just getting to it. 

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